The NYPD released photos Sunday morning that show a suspect — covered in clothing from head to toe — wanted for apparently randomly fatally plunging a knife into a straphanger’s neck hours earlier.
The 32-year-old victim was riding a northbound No. 2 train at 12:17 a.m. when he was stabbed in the “absolutely horrible crime” as the train entered Penn Station in Midtown, police and MTA officials said.
According to police, this man stabbed another person in the neck as a subway train was pulling into Penn Station on November 21, 2021. DCPI
turnstile footage shows the suspect who was covered from head to toe in clothing making it impossible to discern any features. DCPIThe attack appeared to be unprovoked. A law-enforcement source said the victim had a low-level rap sheet and hasn’t been in trouble for “quite some time.
“It’s crazy,” the source said. “Guy was just taking a train. This one is scary.”
The slaying comes amid a stunning uptick in recent subway crimes in the Big Apple.
The suspect was wearing a white baseball cap, black face mask and a gray jacket over a white shirt. DCPITransit crimes soared 140 percent, from 22 to 53 incidents, during the week of Nov. 8 to Nov. 14 this year compared to the same time frame in 2020, when ridership was down amid the pandemic, according to NYPD figures.
Meanwhile, felonious assaults have shot up by 30 percent so far this year over the same period in 2020, from 307 to 399 incidents, according to NYPD data.
EMS responded to Sunday’s crime and transported the victim to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The release of his name was pending family notification.
The suspect fled the station.
Police at the scene where a person was fatally stabbed inside the 34th Street subway station located at Seventh Avenue and W34th Street in New York. Christopher Sadowski
A bloody knife seen after the stabbing. Christopher Sadowski
Police officers respond at the scene of the stabbing. Christopher SadowskiPhotos captured the suspect at a turnstile but clothing mostly shields his face and body.
He was wearing a white baseball cap, black face mask and a gray jacket over a white shirt. He also donned an orange and black checkered hood.
He also has a dark complexion, stands about 5-foot-9 and weighs approximately 185 pounds, cops said.
A baseball cap seen amid the blood at the scene of the stabbing. Christopher Sadowski“This is an absolutely horrible crime,” said MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan in a statement Sunday. “We are working with the NYPD and will do everything possible to cooperate with their search for this perpetrator, and help make sure our subways are safe.”
Additional reporting by David Meyer
Officials investigate at the scene of the deadly crime. Christopher Sadowski